Metro pleased with recent higher rate of solved homicides

Cathy Scott

Friday, Aug. 1, 1997 | 9:35 a.m.

Metro Police's homicide detectives are bursting with pride over their recent success in solving murders.

For "the first time in years," their clearance rate is 90 percent, said Sgt. Bill Keeton, who is acting lieutenant of the homicide unit until September. That rate is for a three- to four-week period, Keeton said.

Earlier, the clearance rate was about 75 percent, he said. Historically, the clearance rate for homicide cases has been between 60 percent and 65 percent, Keeton said. In 1995, the clearance rate was 68 percent.

"We're doing great lately," he said. "We're real proud of our clearance rate. The guys' chests are all puffed out because they're proud of the hard work they're doing."

With 15 murders in seven days a week ago, "we've cleared 13 of them" by making arrests, Keeton said.

Keeton said a "tremendous amount of work" was done by homicide detectives to solve the crimes.

For example, catching the people charged with the murder of an 84-year-old woman found dead Monday in her Las Vegas apartment wasn't an easy task.

"We didn't have any witnesses to anything that happened at the scene," said Sgt. Ken Hefner, whose team of detectives investigated the case.

Hefner and two detectives were called at 6 p.m. to Selma Adelman's apartment at 1570 S. Burnham Ave., near Oakey Boulevard. She was discovered by her daughter, who went to the apartment to check on Adelman. The woman had been robbed, strangled and her apartment ransacked.

Using cellular telephones, the detectives immediately reported missing credit cards to the card companies.

"Because we all have cellular phones and consumer companies are open 24 hours a day, they could provide us with information," Hefner said. "Credit cards and checks were stolen, and they (the suspects) were using them. We were able to make a lot of headway."

He said years ago that wasn't the case.

"If you called Visa or Discovery after hours, there wouldn't be anyone there. Now you can call them virtually 24 hours a day and get help and assistance."

On Wednesday, three people were arrested in connection with Adelman's murder.

In another murder of an elderly woman, also investigated by Hefner's team, investigators followed the suspect through the use of stolen credit cards.

Mildred Prunier's body was found in a desert area behind Nellis Air Force Base on July 22. The next day, detectives, using sketchy information about a car, put out a bulletin to watch for the vehicle. Patrol officers spotted the suspect, pursued him and shot him in the shoulder when he rammed his car into a patrol car.

Prunier, 67, who had been visiting Las Vegas from Whittier, Calif., died from a gunshot wound.

"They traced credit card trails (in both cases)," Keeton said. "There was a tremendous amount of work."